Detection of chromosomal and plasmid--encoded virulence determinants in Yersinia enterocolitica and other Yersinia spp. isolated from food animals in Greece

The distribution of Yersinia strains in animal reservoirs was examined in 835 food animals (pigs, chickens, sheep, cows) from different Greek departments (Attica, Fthiotida, Viotia and Evia) over a one year period. The isolated strains were characterized with respect to the presence of chromosomal (yst) and plasmid-encoded virulence determinants (virF, yadA) and their antimicrobial susceptibility was tested.In total, Yersiniaspp. were obtained from 9.94% of the 835 food animals at slaughter that were sampled in this study. There was no statistically significant seasonal distribution, nor was any significant departmental distribution observed. From the 83 isolated Yersinia strains, 76 (91,57%) belonged to Y. enterocolitica (58 were of serotype O:3/biotype 4 and 18 strains were non O:3, non O:9), 3 belonged to Y. pseudotuberculosis, 2 to Y. kristensenii and 2 to Y. intermedia. Y. enterocolitica O:3/4 was mainly isolated from the pigs, while Y. enterocolitica non O:3, non O:9 was from the chickens. The strains were grouped into 5 genotypes, with respect to the presence or absence of the virulence genes. A significant predominance of genotype V, the one carrying all the three virulence genes, was observed in the strains isolated from the pigs. Complete susceptibility to most of the 3rd and to the 4th generation cephalosporins and to ciprofloxacin, was observed among the isolates. Remarkable was the association between the presence of each virulence gene separately and resistance to some antimicrobials, a matter of further investigation.     

Assessing the knowledge base for biotechnology in South Africa

Summary We review the knowledge base for biotechnology in South Africa in the light of government interventions aimed at establishing a biotechnology industry. We use bibliometric methods to analyse data from the ISI database on the performance of microbiology, genetics and molecular biology research over a 20-year period from 1980 to 2000. Genetics and molecular biology publications have seen a steady decline while microbiology has steadily increased its share of world publications. Although the quantity of the base is small the relative impact factor suggests that the quality of publications in these disciplines is comparable to world output. We conclude that the lack of adequate output in these disciplines poses a threat to government policies and investment aimed at increasing biotechnology commercialisation.     

Efficient light trapping in inverted nanopyramid thin crystalline silicon membranes for solar cell applications

Thin-film crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells with light-trapping structures can enhance light absorption within the semiconductor absorber layer and reduce material usage. Here we demonstrate that an inverted nanopyramid light-trapping scheme for c-Si thin films, fabricated at wafer scale via a low-cost wet etching process, significantly enhances absorption within the c-Si layer. A broadband enhancement in absorptance that approaches the Yablonovitch limit (Yablonovitch, E. J. Opt. Soc. Am.1987, 72, 899-907 ) is achieved with minimal angle dependence. We also show that c-Si films less than 10 μm in thickness can achieve absorptance values comparable to that of planar c-Si wafers thicker than 300 μm, amounting to an over 30-fold reduction in material usage. Furthermore the surface area increases by a factor of only 1.7, which limits surface recombination losses in comparison with other nanostructured light-trapping schemes. These structures will not only significantly curtail both the material and processing cost of solar cells but also allow the high efficiency required to enable viable c-Si thin-film solar cells in the future.     

Review of Ego defenses: Theory and measurement.

Reviews the book, Ego defenses: Theory and measurement by H. R. Conte and R. Plutchik (see record 1994-98641-000). This book comprehensively examines one of the most influential concepts in psychotherapy and counseling, that of defenses and their role in the therapeutic process. It is very well-written and exhaustive in the sense that covers a wide range of issues related to defenses from conceptual and theoretical to issues of clinical application and measurement. Stemming out of a psychoanalytic/psychodynamic perspective the authors revisit the area of defenses and provide an all encompassing presentation of the major issues surrounding the importance, function and usefulness of defenses in psychotherapy and counseling. The book is divided in two parts. The first examines theoretical and conceptual issues surrounding ego defenses and provides several theories and models for comprehending ego defenses. The second concentrates on the methods used to measure, evaluate and objectify ego defenses. The editors' effort to include a wide spectrum of authors who present different conceptualizations, theoretical approaches, and a variety of measurement methodologies is successful and should be commended. The only reservation the reviewer holds about this book is related to the fact that the concept of ego defenses is closely related to insight oriented therapies and approaches and to a constructivist epistemology of human nature. As such, it would prove useless to these clinicians who adhere to behavioral or existential epistemological perspectives to explain and comprehend human nature. All in all, this book is a necessary addition to all those—academics, clinicians and researchers—who in one way or another deal with emotions, human functioning, and psychotherapeutic change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A generic building product model incorporating building type information

Building product models are presented as an integrated representation for use in translating information between current and future design applications. Using an information model developed for design applications, we specify a Generic Building Model that represents both the physical and abstract information necessary to model basic knowledge about buildings and architecture. The Generic Building Model and its subsidiary concepts are reviewed. We show how it can incorporate building type information, and include the needs of various activities for comparison against the constructed form. We illustrate the model's behavior by showing how it can be adapted to model information relevant to hospital design.     

High-energy collision induced dissociation fragmentation pathways of peptides, probed using a multiturn tandem time-of-flight mass spectrometer "MULTUM-TOF/TOF"

A new multiturn tandem time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometer "MULTUM-TOF/TOF" has been designed and constructed. It consists of a matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization ion source, a multiturn TOF mass spectrometer, a collision cell, and a quadratic-field ion mirror. The multiturn TOF mass spectrometer can overcome the problem of precursor ion selection in TOF, due to insufficient time separation between two adjacent TOF peaks, by increasing the number of cycles. As a result, the total TOF increases with the increase in resolving power. The quadratic-field ion mirror allows temporal focusing for fragment ions with different kinetic energies. Product ion spectra from monoisotopically selected precursor ions of angiotensin I, substance P, and bradykinin have been obtained. The fragment ions observed are mainly the result of high-energy collision induced dissociation.     

Concealment of Emotion in an Emergency Room: Expanding Design for Emotion Awareness

The design of systems and mechanisms for the development of emotion awareness between communicators has been a concern in CSCW. The typical approach in design is tied up in notions of mediated communication being a ‘poor’ transmitter of crucial emotion information. Thus, by conveying emotion expressions, emotion awareness is consequently supported. In this paper we argue that emotion awareness is also reliant on strategic concealment of emotion expressions through hiding and suppression. To support our argument we present data from a field study of the expression of emotion between healthcare personnel in an emergency room. We provide evidence of the hiding and suppression of emotion expressions by both expressers and observers and how these behaviors support the development of emotion awareness. We then outline a new system design perspective for emotion awareness including both conveyance and concealment behavior and provide examples of systems that have successfully embodied notions of hiding and suppression.     

Quantification of interacting runtime qualities in software architectures: Insights from transaction processing in client–server architectures

ContextArchitecture is fundamental for fulfilling requirements related to the non-functional behavior of a software system such as the quality requirement that response time does not degrade to a point where it is noticeable. Approaches like the Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM) combine qualitative analysis heuristics (e.g. scenarios) for one or more quality metrics with quantitative analyses. A quantitative analysis evaluates a single metric such as response time. However, since quality metrics interact with each other, a change in the architecture can affect unpredictably multiple quality metrics.ObjectiveThis paper introduces a quantitative method that determines the impact of a design change on multiple metrics, thus reducing the risks in architecture design. As a proof of concept, the method is applied on a simulation model of transaction processing in client server architecture.MethodFactor analysis is used to unveil latent (i.e. not directly measurable) quality features represented by new variables that reflect architecture-specific correlations between metrics. Separate Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) are then applied to these variables, for interpreting the tradeoffs detected by factor analysis in terms of the quantified metrics.ResultsThe results for the examined transaction processing architecture show three latent quality features, the corresponding groups of strongly correlated quality metrics and the impact of architecture characteristics on the latent quality features.ConclusionThe proposed method is a systematic way for relating the variability of quality metrics and the implied tradeoffs to specific architecture characteristics.     

Abnormal brain glucose metabolism in the delusional misidentification syndromes: a positron emission tomography study in Alzheimer disease

Brain lesions have been reported with increasing frequency in the delusional misidentification syndromes (DMS). This is the first controlled study to describe DMS regional cerebral metabolic rates of glucose (rCMRglc). We compared rCMRglc (using positron emission tomography) and neuropsychological data in 9 patients with DMS and Alzheimer dementia (AD), 15 AD patients without DMS, and 17 healthy controls. The DMS group differed from the AD group without DMS in having significant hypometabolism in paralimbic (orbitofrontal and cingulate areas bilaterally) and left medial temporal areas, and significant bilateral normalized hypermetabolism in sensory association cortices (superior temporal and inferior parietal) without right left asymmetry. Compared to healthy controls, both AD groups had significant dorso lateral frontal hypometabolism bilaterally. No specific DMS neuropsychological profile was identified. Dysfunctional connections among multimodal association areas, paralimbic structures, and dorsolateral frontal cortex are proposed as the predisposing neural deficit underlying DMS, causing cognitive-perceptual-affective dissonance, which under specific conditions results in "positive" delusion formation.     

The economics of photovoltaic stand-alone residential households: A case study for various European and Mediterranean locations

The cost-effective sizing and evaluation of residential stand-alone photovoltaic systems at various European and Mediterranean locations is the subject of this paper. The stand-alone photovoltaic system is serving the energy needs of a medium-sized household inhabited by a typical four member family. A typical energy consumption daily profile is assumed, and the solar array, battery and back-up generator – if necessary – are optimally sized to minimise the system life-cycle cost (LCC). The calculations have been done assuming economic parameters and PV technology costs applicable to years 1998 and 2005.